Physics Flashcards
Transverse Waves
Waves that move up and down (like an ocean wave)
Longtiduinal/compressional waves:
Doesn’t move on the y axis (slinky like waves.)
Velocity
How fast something moves in a certain direction
Frequency
Amount of waves compressed.
Large wavelengths - Low frequency
Small wavelengths - high frequency
Wavelength
Distance between peaks of waves
Equilibrium
Middle line between crest and trough waves
Crest and trough
Crest - Top of top wave
Trough - bottom of bottom wave
One complete wave
One wave with a crest and one wave with a trough conjoined
Amplitude
Distance between crest/trough and equilibrium
Lateral inversion
Lateral inversion means that left and right have been flipped over.
An image reflected in a plane mirror is…
virtual
not magnified
upright
laterally inverted
Incidence and reflection
Incidence - original ray
Reflection - reflected ray
Law of reflection
Angle of incidence is the same as the angle of reflection
Virtual image
An image that forms in a mirror but you cannot physically touch it.
Opaque
Light cannot pass through it.
All light is reflected or absorbed
Translucent
Some light can pass through.
Most light is reflected.
Transparent
Completely see through
All light passes through it.
Transmitted
When light is projected through an object.
When light enters a medium,
More to less dense- bends away from normal
Less to more dense - bends towards normal
Total Internal Reflection
Occurs when the angle between the normal and the incident ray is greater than the critical angle.
So light keeps bouncing off in boundaries in the medium (water, diamond etc).
Total internal reflection only occurs when light travels into a medium with a low refractive index. This is because light bends away from the normal
Critical angle
When the incident ray strikes the boundary between the 2 mediums at the critical angle, the refracted ray at the border.
When the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction is 90 degrees, the critical angle is 90 degrees.
